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“In the beginning my boyfriend used to come here a lot, but he was older than me,” she sighs, looking off into the South London skyline from her home.

“He died just after his 98th birthday so he didn’t come here much recently.”

Disguising her obvious sadness at losing the love of her life, Zandra is matter of fact about the details.

She says: “Technically he died on June 7 but he wanted to be buried in a military cemetery in America but they were so busy we had to wait for a space.

Just three months ago, her long-term partner, US movie producer Salah Hassanein, died back in California, where they lived together (Image: REX)

Now, winning the hearts of a whole new generation, the fashion icon’s credentials as dame of the dinner party are being put to the test in this new series of Celebrity Masterchef (Image: BBC)

“His Egyptian family always come over in July, so we were able to keep his body until finally we got a slot – we got barely half an hour to have his funeral!

Despite her loss and having just flown over from America this morning, the colourful designer is a bundle of joy and seems to have barely aged over the years.

Her zany hair and artful yet heavy-handed approach to make-up means the lorry driver’s daughter from Chatham, Kent, is as instantly recognisable now as she was back in the 1980s when Princess Diana would often visit her trendy Central London shop.

And now, winning the hearts of a whole new generation, the fashion icon’s credentials as dame of the dinner party are being put to the test in this new series of Celebrity MasterChef.

Piers Atkinson, Dame Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan meet Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at the Quintessentially Foundation and Elephant Family's Royal Rickshaw Auction presented by Selfridges at Lancaster House on June 30, 2015 (Image: Getty)

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Serving up the fourteenth series of this long-running show are judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace and the usual celebs alongside Dame Zandra, include Strictly pro Oti Mabuse, Towie’s Joey Essex, runner Andy Grant and former footballer Neil “Razor” Ruddock.

Having spent the last 25 years dividing her time between her late partner’s beach house in Del Mar, San Diego, and London, the fashion queen admits she didn’t know who any of her fellow celebs were before they filmed.

And being teamed up with 28-year-old reality star Joey Essex seems to have been a highlight of Zandra’s time on the show.

Speaking in her London flat – a flamboyant and colourful gilded cage – four floors above the hipster streets of Bermondsey, she says: “I like Joey Essex very much – he has a wonderful confidence about him and is very open and funny.

“But meeting footballer Neil Ruddock made me realise just how old I am. He’s 51 – but I actually went to the World Cup in 1966 – and Neil wasn’t even born!”

Zandra Rhodes with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Image: PA)

At the height of her fame in the 70s, the Princess of Punk Zandra was dressing stars like Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Bianca Jagger and Jackie Onassis.

Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall also visited her Bayswater attic, and Zandra remembers her embarrassment when the notoriously spiky star stepped on a stray pin.

It was the Royal connection that made Zandra a household name in the 80s, when Princess Di, Fergie and Princess Anne were all spotted wearing her dresses.

She says: “Diana was very nice and seemed very shy. She would pay a surprise visit with her friend Sarah and try a dress on in my shop.

“I would be slaving away in the factory, but I would be called in and asked to make up the real one with her measurements or make it in another colour. Then I would go to the Palace to fit it.”

Elton John and Zandra Rhodes at Heathrow. in January 1981 (Image: Mirrorpix)

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She also reveals an embarrassing moment when she was caught trying to avoid being seen by the royals. Zandra says, “Diana once asked me, ‘Are you still cycling?’ and I wondered how she knew. Then I realised it was because I had pretended not to see her and Sarah when I was cycling in the pouring rain on the Bayswater Road.”

Her affection for the royals continues to this day, particularly the Duchess of Cambridge. She says: “Kate’s done very well. I’d love to dress her.”

But her greatest admiration is reserved for the Queen, and interestingly, also the Duchess of Cornwall. “Charles’s wife Camilla is amazing,” she says. “She doesn’t put a foot wrong.”

In the 1990s minimalism struck and Zandra was forced to close her London shop, Bayswater workspace and factory in Olympia. Upping sticks, she moved in with her boyfriend and started again.

Zandra Rhodes with Princess Diana at Christies In New York for a preview of Dresses From The Collection Of Diana, Princess Of Wales - two of which in the collection Zandra designed (Image: Getty)

Although newspapers linked the couple as far back as 1975, she says, “I met him in New York at a charity dinner and we were together for more than 25 years.”

Sadly his death means that apart from her sister, Beverley, who is three years younger, and nieces and nephews who don’t keep in touch, Zandra is alone.

However, she has no regrets about not starting a family of her own, saying: “I love my career and I don’t think I’m going to miss not having children.”

Rightly proud of being awarded a CBE in 1997 and then a damehood in 2014, the designer, who turns 80 next year, will be marking her life in fashion when Princess Michael of Kent opens the exhibition, 50 Years of Fabulous, in the Fashion and Textile Museum, Bermondsey, next month.

Queen Elizabeth II and Zandra Rhodes in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace after meeting embroiderers who made 500 embroidered ornaments for The Queen's Christmas Tree in 1998 (Image: Getty)

She says: “The proudest moment of my life was being made a Dame. I’ve met the Queen on five occasions.

“She does a wonderful job. Would you like to see lines of people all the time?”

The launch party guest list for the national treasure promises to be all those dinner party guests – a glittering roll call of who’s who in showbiz.

But the timing of the exhibition is also a handy way for the designer to bury herself in work now that her love affair in the States has come to a sad end.

She says: “There’s a lot of grief now – and clearing up!

"My sister Beverley has been with me in California packing up the house because it’s huge, it has to be sold and I’ll be bringing my stuff here.”